Ruth Schloss

Ruth Schloss (1922 - 2013) was an artist who was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1922 and emigrated to Israel with her parents in 1937.

During her lifetime Schloss underwent a number of transformations in terms of how the mainstream of Israeli art has viewed her. Initially, she was recognized mainly as an illustrator of adult and children's books at the Sifriat Poalim publishing house. Her works often featured political-ideological images suited to the life she led: She was considered a practitioner of socialist realism, which went out of fashion in the 1950s with the rise of abstract painting. After spending two years in Paris, where she studied Cubism, she returned to Israel to live on Kibbutz Lahavot Habashan, but was forced to leave because of her support, and that of her husband Binyamin Cohen, for the socialist left led by Moshe Sneh (who had broken away from the United Workers Party, or Mapam, which had founded the kibbutz ).

She studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, and took classes taught by Mordecai Ardon, among other famous Israeli artists. She graduated in 1942 with a major in graphics. After graduating Ruth Schloss helped to found Kibbutz Merhavia and later joined Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan, where she lived with her husband until 1953. Due to political differences Schloss was left the Kibbutz and moved to family property in Kfar Shmaryahu, Herzliya, which at that time was an agricultural settlement.

In 1946 Ruth Schloss went to the Kibbutz Haartzi’s painting course and held her first exhibition a year later at the Mikra Studio in Tel Aviv. As an illustrator and graphic artist, Schloss worked as an illustrator for children’s books and magazines at the Sifriat Poalim publishing house. She then went to Paris in 1949 and studied Cubism at the Grande Chaumiere returning to Israel in 1951. However Schloss’s main interest was in social realism.

As social realism went out of fashion, Ruth Schloss’s art wasn’t appreciated, especially as her political views didn’t match those of the art establishment. Throughout the 50’s Schloss’s work showed her concern for the human condition and reflected the difficult living conditions of Israel's new immigrants. Although she hardly exhibited, Schloss painted and drew every day, even while she was bringing up her children.

For twenty years from 1963 – 83 Ruth Schloss had a studio in Jaffa where she not only drew portraits of the people in the area, but invited mothers and their children to come to her studio and play. This enabled her to paint and draw them with ease. Ruth Schloss’ art concentrated on the disadvantaged and marginalized in society, both Israeli and Arab. After 1983 she moved her studio back to Kfar Shmaryahu.

Throughout the years, Schloss stuck to figurative painting. Her subjects were usually conveyed those who were weaker, oppressed, deprived and discriminated against. This included a variety of subjects - from children, the elderly, women, refugees and animals.

In 1991, the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art held her first retrospective.